After leaving construction, student building new career

Yale fellowship part of plan to be professor

John Aragon, a Palomar College student, finishes packing Monday for the Yale Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, which encourages minority students who are under-represented in academia to pursue careers as scholars. Aragon wants to become an English professor.
— Howard Lipin / UNION-TRIBUNE

John Aragon, a Palomar College student, finishes packing Monday for the Yale Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, which encourages minority students who are under-represented in academia to pursue careers as scholars. Aragon wants to become an English professor.
— Howard Lipin / UNION-TRIBUNE

SAN MARCOS  When he boarded a plane Monday for a summer fellowship at Yale University, John Aragon was taking flight toward a radically different life from the one he’s left behind.

At a time when thousands of laid-off Americans are scrambling to retrain for another job, the 30-year-old Palomar College student, who had dropped out of high school at 16, closed his construction business and decided to return to school — for good. He now plans to be a college professor.

As one of 11 fellows nationwide at the Yale Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, Aragon will study how to conduct academic research. The program is designed to encourage minority students who are underrepresented in academia to pursue careers as scholars.

Two years ago, Aragon was a partner in an earth-moving business, earning $70,000 in a good year and estimating he could make $100,000 or more as his company grew.

The recession dimmed those prospects. Aragon, who spent years traveling the country chasing the next construction job, had also concluded he couldn’t live the life he wanted without a college education.

“When you don’t have a lot of direction, you just kind of take whatever opportunities come your way,” Aragon said of his years untethered to a home, community and career.

It was at a relative’s wedding in January 2008 when he decided to take the reins. A cousin who works as a corporate attorney in San Francisco mentioned that he and his wife liked the city and were planning to live there. The casual conversation hit Aragon like a lightning bolt. After years of feeling unsettled — he had been renting a house in Temecula to be closer to construction jobs — here was a family member whose schooling had allowed him to move anywhere.

“For someone to tell me they were going to live somewhere by choice — that was a big deal for me,” Aragon said.

Meanwhile, his older sister, Oriana Aragon, was studying psychology and neuroscience at Cal State San Marcos after selling her carpet business in Escondido in 2004. She’s now pursuing graduate studies at Yale.

Aragon said it took about a year to close his business. “I realized that even having $70 an hour doesn’t compare to ... having an education,” he said.

He decided to begin his academic journey at Palomar College, where Oriana had also launched her studies in higher education. At the San Marcos campus, he has plowed through 18 courses in a year and a half and earned a 4.0 grade-point average while living off savings and working odd construction jobs.

Aragon has only a few courses left before he applies to a four-year university. In the meantime, his sister suggested he apply for the Yale fellowship.

Relying heavily on student loans and scholarships, he hopes to study English at UC Berkeley and then pursue a doctorate.

After enrolling at Palomar as a business major, Aragon said he switched to English. “When you go to college, you realize that people get paid to do a lot more things,” he said. “I didn’t realize that people actually get paid to read books and do research.”